Peppers in containers
 

I am going to grow Jalepeno Peppers and Cilantro in pots this year....along with my toms. Is a 5 gallon paint bucket going to be big enough for the peppers and cilantro??? I know maters need much bigger. The 5 gal buckets are bigger than 5 gal nursery pots.

I grow all my hot peppers and most herbs in 5 gallon grow bags and they do just fine.

I have grown peppers quite well in 5 gallon buckets too.

[QUOTE=Ed of Somis;399308]I am going to grow Jalepeno Peppers and Cilantro in pots this year....along with my toms. Is a 5 gallon paint bucket going to be big enough for the peppers and cilantro??? I know maters need much bigger. The 5 gal buckets are bigger than 5 gal nursery pots.[/QUOTE]

One 5-gallon per pepper plant. For cilantro I prefer an 8" or 10" plastic pot or trough.

My tomatoes grow fine in 5-gallon buckets so I assume they will work for peppers too since pepper plants are much smaller. One thing though, I would look into grow bags or drill extra large holes and then line with landscaping fabric for air-pruning. Especially since I've read peppers like it dry... That's how I plan to do mine (if I can ever get peppers to germinate for me!!)

I've heard some people say that food-grade plastic buckets are preferable if you're growing plants for food. Your favorite bakery, deli or restaurant might give you their empties if you ask nice:).

5 gallons should be fine for size. Containers need to be watered often if they're outside in hot or windy weather, but you'll still want good drainage.

Let us know how it works out.

Down here in the land of wholesale growers, 5-gallon nursery pots in various styles are in plentiful supply for $0.25 to 0.45 each at a wholesale supplier. If you are using a 5-gallon [i]bucket[/i] instead, then yes drill 3/8" holes on the sides adjacent to the bottom and several more in the bottom itself.

[QUOTE=spacetogrow;399361]I've heard some people say that food-grade plastic buckets are preferable if you're growing plants for food. Your favorite bakery, deli or restaurant might give you their empties if you ask nice:).

5 gallons should be fine for size. Containers need to be watered often if they're outside in hot or windy weather, but you'll still want good drainage.

Let us know how it works out.[/QUOTE]

Try the bakery at the grocery store their cake icing comes in nice buckets.

Yes drill the holes in the side at the bottom not under the container.

Some of my cacti containers I drilled holes all over the sides.

Worth

[QUOTE=spacetogrow;399361]I've heard some people say that food-grade plastic buckets ...[/QUOTE]

What, you want it cheap and healthy too?

You can get away woth much smaller pots for peppers if you know what you're doing. If 5 gal are easy to come by then use those. Peppers don't mind being root bound if properly fed, and usual recommendations are vastly oversized, probably by people who've never tried growing in smaller pots. Jalapenos are incredibly tough, they can even take my clay soil without problems, so whatever you do they are really hard to kill.

Here's one of my Capperino F1 plants - a hot cherry pepper -- growing in a 4"x4"x6" pot. I lost count at 15 flower buds, and several are now blooming. So yes, it is very possible to grow them in even smaller containers.

[IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/20/je8ada3y.jpg[/IMG]

I've actually had better results for peppers in containers than in the ground. Either a single plant in a 3-5 gallon container, or four plants in an 15-18 gallon container.

Don't forget the dolomitic lime and a little bit of epsom salts along with copious amounts of TomatoTone, GardenTone, or your preferred low-N fertilizer. Also, I remove the first blossom that forms in the first branch or "crotch" of the plant.

I plant my sweet bells and frying peppers in 3-gallon pots and always wind up with more than I need...I dip them in a tray of water and Texas Tomato Food solution once a week, and water from the top as needed. Containers also give you portability at end of season if you need some 'extra time' for them to turn color. I use 10-gallon fabric smart pots for the 'super-hots'.

That's the other thing. You can be mean to your super-hots and withhold water when the fruit is ripening up and they will be hotter than the blazes of heck.

i forgot to add some examples for small pots and peppers in my previous post, i kinda specialized in that direction:

8l, or 2 gal
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Pol3iQV.jpg[/IMG]

a butch t scorpion,7l or 1.8 gal
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/x3tQ1Fpl.jpg[/IMG]

4l or 1 gal
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/DNAUwCy.jpg[/IMG]

3l, or 0.8 gal
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/QFETlw5.jpg[/IMG]

and if productivity is in question (because previous pics were taken right before cutting the plants down before winter), this is a chocolate bhut jolokia:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/yFsahQj.jpg[/IMG]

so yeah, it's possible and even easy. this is also the reason peppers do incredibly well in hydroponic setups, a guy in Finland grows 4m tall pepper trees in 30 cm deep hydro tubs,its insane.

Aconite, that is awesome!! what is your secret?

Amazing pictures! It sounds like you over winter them. How old are these plants? I've considered trying to over winter a few, and might give it a go this year with one or two.

All of those are last year's seedlings, the images were taken last fall, so they are young. I cut some down and put them inside for the winter, but it's not my general practice, i don't have good conditions for them so i loose a lot of in storage.

Luigiwu, no special secret, a good understanding of plant physiology and very careful balancing of nutrients. I had to perfect growing in containers because hot peppers do very poorly in my garden with clay soil. I went the small pot route because it's cheaper and i'm a hoarder lol, i can never have enough pots.

Thanks aconite! I think, after seeing your pictures, I will go ahead and put all my hot peppers in three gallon grow bags instead of the five gallon bags I've used in the past. I have both sizes on hand, but would rather save the five gallons for my dwarf and compact tomato varieties.

The Capperino F1 I posted a picture of above and it's mate were started three months ago. Given your results, I'm now planning to keep them right where they are and see what they are capable of in their little pots. I have two more I started last month that will get planted out to grow bags. I'll also have one extra plant of each variety I'm planting out (my back-ups), so maybe I'll trial a few other varieties in small pots this year. Figure I have nothing to loose!

Give it a shot, especially if you have extras, it's loads of fun and you learn a lot along the way. I'd still maybe plant a couple of each variety in bigger bags as a backup, i don't know what your growing habits are. I have one more example, the by far the most drastic one, i just have to find where i put the pictures.
Remember to monitor your plants for possible nutrient deficiencies and react quickly, fertilize very often but with very small concentrations, and go easy on the nitrogen. Remember that small pots dry out faster, but with superhots it helps with getting them hotter (as if we really needed that...).
My only real problem was that the plants get so heavy, especially when fruit is abundant, that they tip over in the wind. Using a cucumber net around them or weighing the pots down a bit helps.

The ones I'm planning to try growing in small pots will be my spares that I usually give away or toss after the ones I plant out in larger grow bags are established and healthy. I've had great luck with growing both peppers and tomatoes in grow bags, and am used monitoring them a bit more carefully than the plants in my raised beds. I guess I'll have to be a bit more vigilant with the small pots. Thanks for the tips!

Forgot to write, foliar feed them! It does wonders and it's almost impossible to overfeed them. Just stick with the lower nitrogen rule.
Good luck, if you post pictures at the end of the season i'd love to see them, and if you get stuck don't hesitate to shoot me a pm!

[QUOTE=Worth1;399365]
Yes drill the holes in the side at the bottom not under the container.
[/QUOTE]

Worth, why the sides at the bottom instead of the bottom? Also do you line with fabric?

[QUOTE=feldon30;399407]I've actually had better results for peppers in containers than in the ground. Either a single plant in a 3-5 gallon container, or four plants in an 15-18 gallon container.

Don't forget the dolomitic lime and a little bit of epsom salts along with copious amounts of TomatoTone, GardenTone, or your preferred low-N fertilizer. Also, I remove the first blossom that forms in the first branch or "crotch" of the plant.[/QUOTE]

Why lime? I thought peppers liked more acidic soil?

yeah but they get cranky without a good supply of calcium... and/or boron... especially during growth spurts.

It may be a fluke, but it seems like my peppers like to have a companion. The ones I planted last year with three in a ten gallon pot all seemed happier and produced more than the ones planted singly in the five gallon pots.

However, it should be noted that mine have rarely looked as productive as the ones a lot of you guys post, so who knows? I may have just finally gotten some random thing right with these.:twisted:

Anyone else see this happening with their plants?

I plant all my peppers in recycled clear 1 gal. water jugs. You can see how the roots are doing and how much water is still in there. The best part is they are free after we drink the water :)

I plant my "houseplant" peppers 2 to a 1 gallon pot. They aren't nearly as productive as acinite's plants, and probably only produce because they aren't exposed to the blazing sun and/or drying wind of the great outdoors.

I currently have a 6 ft tall carolina reaper pepper thriving in a 5 gallon container. Just dont forget to fertilize when they start getting big. As far as cheap containers go, i scored hundreds of slightly used 5 gallon pots from a new housing development behind my house, for free.

I grow a couple hundred plants in 12 inch hanging baskets, which are hanging in the trusses of my greenhouses above the tomatoes. They do just fine, I just have to water daily.